your resume of "obsolete" skills

[Cybrvanr]

I'm only 33 years old, but being that I'm in the high-technology field of audiovisual equipment and electronics, I've found I have accumulated a rather large list of skills related to my job that just aren't needed anymore, or are rarely needed today. Here's a few of mine:

Carbon-arc "changeover" movie projection system operation

Servicing and upkeep of 16mm film equipment

"cross-fade" slide projector programming and setup.

Color convergence of "triad" style picture tube televisions, and other tube-television adjustment/alignment

Turntable cartridge geometry adjustment

Magnetic tape bias and other recording adjustments

Tape head alignment, belt replacement & other magnetic media equipment servicing.

Vacuum tube matching and amplifier bias adjustments

fully experienced using command-line DOS operations on a computer

can program machine language for a Commodore 64

Due to my enjoyment of working with vintage equipment, I ended up acquiring skills that very few people of my age are experienced with. This has helped me occasionally in my career, as I am one of a few people who can perform some of these tasks, but they won't make or break my career. It's interesting however that as I was younger, and the equipment was more common, I figured it would always be around, and learning the inner depths of it's workings would be imperative for a career in the desired field. Ultimately, as I have become very skilled in my profession, I have had to learn totally new tasks, but experience in the way it used to be done has helped me learn the new equipment, like LCD monitors, etc.

What are some of your "obsolete" skills, either appliance related, electronics, or other field.

 

[sudsmaster]

Oh, it's probably a long list. I did the DOS thing, as well as Netware... which is now finally on its last legs. I was in I for about 15 years, and got rather disillusioned as the OS wars heated up, the internt viruses and worms took hold, and the endless combinations of errors that fools can commit. Towards the end I was designing Windows 2000 server systems and Active Directory architecture. I got out of IT back in 2003, and decided to become a CNC machinist. Still get to use computers and do a type of programming called G-Code, but it has very real results which I like. While I'm no Luddite, I get by just fine without a pager or a cell phone. My work PC is running Windows 98 - recently upgraded to SE . Yeah, I know, but it's not my call, and it works well enough for the job at hand.

It's only obsolete if nobody enjoys it or nobody can make any money with it... lol...

 

[maggie~hamilton]

DOS 1.0 ~ 6.22
PaintShop Pro
Ventura Publisher
Gem Draw
Wordstar
And all the other ancient software I cut my teeth on!

---

Operating and repairing Mimeographs and Spirit Duplicators

---

I guess that's really about it for my list!

 

[tolivac]

Where to begin-at where I work-I work on electronic "dinosaurs"-Short wave transmitters that are anywhere from 15-40 and lastly 65 years old!Try to keep these going.One is down right now waiting for parts-a meter to be shipped all the way from Switzerland.Other parts have to be made by us or a machine shop.I guess some of my skills are like Cybervanr's-and some others-tuning and repairing tube TV tranmsitters,FM tranmsitters,AM tranmsitters and antenna systems.Lastly the short wave transmitters I use now.don't work on any "new" type stuff.I do feel like a pipefitter on a steam locomotive!But LOVE it!Most of the time you can see smell or hear the problems.Older gear was like that-you could diagnose it with your built in "test gear"-eyes,ears,nose!Love those big glowing tubes!I am one who loves radios that literally glow in the dark.and for another skill here-setting modulator stage bias adjust-If you have adjusted the bias on Hi-Fi amps,guitar amps,then you are most of the way there for modulator bias adjustments.ditto with balance and hum balance adjust.oh yesat the same agency I am at now-worked on their older studio gear-Tube consoles,tape machines and RCA,QRK Tt's.The Gates tube boards were fun to work on-and the modules so easy to fix-just replace some tubes and caps-and then its ready to go!was good at aligning tape machines-and fixing Ampex R/P amps in them.also hi-Speed Reel and cassette dubber systems.The ampex ones were tube.so easy to work on!Miss hose-now the studio plant has gone digital-sigh-no cool old machines any more!Those went to the library of Congress.they are sticking with analog.Very smart really-analog can ALWAYS be used-and it archives better!they even convert digital material to analog.

 

[danemodsandy]

Well, There Are Skills, And Then There Are Skills...

Here are a few I haven't used in a while:

- Styling my hair with a hot comb.
- Doing the Hustle.
- Doing the Hustle in shoes with a four-inch heel and an inch-and-a-half platform.
- Spotting a fake pukka-shell necklace at twenty paces, in bar lighting.
- Ironing an all-nylon Nik-Nik shirt without scorching it.
- Wearing an all-nylon Nik-Nik shirt on a Georgia summer day and not sweating.
- Spraying my hair so that not even driving with the top down would dislodge it.
- Knowing that Patrick Juvet was way cooler than Paul Jabara.
- Knowing that Paul Jabara was pretty damn cool.
- Repairing eight-tracks.
- Having an encyclopedic knowledge of every Ken Russell movie up through Tommy.
- Knowing that Tommy was the end of Ken Russell.
- Nursing a car with a carburetor into running smoothly on cold mornings.
- Making fondue, both cheese and Fondue Bourguignonne.
- Arranging the pieces of a pit group interestingly.
- Using the fine tuning, horizontal hold, and vertical hold controls on a TV set.
- Finding great apartments at under $150 a month.
- Knowing during the beginning credits of Can't Stop the Music that disco was deader than a doornail, even if it was still being played on the radio.

 

[danemodsandy]

Obsolete Skills I Still Use:

- Cranking a wall-mounted can opener.
- Winding an alarm clock.
- Cranking my car windows.
- Repairing eight-tracks.
- Operating a manual toothbrush.
- DOS.
- Raking (as opposed to those horrid jet-screech leaf blowers).
- Mending.
- Shelling peas.
- Turning off unused lights and appliances.
- Turning book pages.
- Telling time from analog-dial clocks and watches.
- Maintaining a fountain pen.
- Cleaning vinyl records.
- Looking up words I don't know how to spell in my trusty Oxford Unabridged instead of displaying my ignorance for the world to see.
- Waxing kitchen floors.
- Putting iodine on a scratch or scrape.
- Wrapping a sandwich in waxed paper.
- Knowing it's "waxed" paper, not "wax" paper. (Same goes for "ice" tea).
- Writing a decent condolence letter, not sending a damn Hallmark card.
- Knowing that inkjet paper is not stationery.
- Polishing silver.
- Operating esoteric eating irons such as butter and fish knives, as well as iced tea, bouillon, and demitasse spoons.
- Laying a tablecloth when company's coming.
- Turning off the television at mealtimes and talking pleasantly with tablemates.

 

[jaxsunst]

COBOL
VOS (on a Stratus mainframe)
DOS
Windows versions 1 and 2.
Paradox database
putting a coin on a tonearm to keep a worn record from skipping.

 

[irishwashguy]

Oh my!!!

i just turned 36, however, i can remeber when I first started at Sears in 1991 at 3.50 and hour plus spifs, which I did well at. We did not even take Visa/mastercard, and the scanner really did not exsist either. i handpunched in all of the #' on the NCR register. even when I worked for a store for extra money when the scanner broke, with a line of people, that did not stop me, it is second nature to me, the show must go on, to the shock of the people I was working with, they asked me how I can run the register w/o a scanner...........10 key by touch maybe? my eyes read the numbers, an outdateed skill I would imagine
-----writing checks, I like to, although, many do not like they once did.
-----Dialing a rotary phone
-----using a clock that does not have a snooze on it, when do you wake up? I usually do when the alarm goes off.
-----all of the computer skills on the old dos system we had at Sears that was a totlal pain to look up costmer accoutn # on years ago.
------the system we had at the Bank when I worked there, the Sharp system and bascially " old school" way that we would manually do lots of everything, i would hand write the amount of money in denominations on the pink slip and on the blue slips, and gave service with a smile.
maybe i am dating myself, although, as I said, I am not very old, i have more analog clocks and watches than most people.Buying something for the long hall as opposed to throwing it away when it breaks. When I was a kid, my mother took the old Toastmaster in to get fixed, as well as the old GE iron. those were the days.

 

[Unimatic1140]

NBI
Wang
MuliMate
IBM Displaywriter
Digital DecMate
Syntex
Ventura Publisher
PageMaker

I started out in 1982 as a Foot Messenger in Manhattan for Bankers Trust and then within a year learned Word Processing and started doing temp Word Processing work. Oh the fun memories.

 

[whirlcool]

I went from this: (Steamboat Gauges)

 

[maggie~hamilton]

Oh yeah, I had forgotten about the Wang and the IBM Displaywriter --- used both of them too, as well as an IBM word processing system similar to the Wang. Don't remember the name of it tho.

I always thought the daisy-wheel printers were really cool.

 

[whirlcool]

To this (B727-200)

Believe it or not, the layout is basically the same, instead of reading a real gauge, you read a representation of that gauge on a CRT.

 

[maggie~hamilton]

Oh yeah, I had forgotten about the Wang and the IBM Displaywriter --- used both of them too, as well as an IBM word processing system similar to the Wang. Don't remember the name of it tho.

I always thought the daisy-wheel printers were really cool.

 

[whirlcool]

Hey cybrvanr:

Those vintage audio skills are still needed! From my Vintage Turntable website I get tons of e-mails asking me how to do just about everything you have listed as a "lost skill". You are still needed!

 

[jaxsunst]

I remember Displaywriter. I learned Word Processing, in 1986, on Word Star, it was a nightmare to use. Very similar to Unix's VI editor.

 

[parunner58]

Here is the first computer I was paid to operate I worked at Lafayette College here in Easton. One skill I learned i can't use anymore is keypunching on an IBM 129 keypunch machine, the 80 colume Holerith code cards. The computer was an IBM System 360 model 20. I think it had 16K of memory, two 3310 removable disk drives and a 2203 printer, it printed a whopping 300 lines a minute. When I first started I would comein sometimes at 4:00 PM start one job and just have to sit and read for 8-10 while the machine printed two boxes of paper, which was about 3000 pages of two part with carbon paper in it. The CRC boxes in the back of the room were all used cards waiting for the qaurterly trash pick up. The person was our RPG programmer. The drawer on the table was full of the course detail cards, one drawer per class and if you took 5 courses you had 5 cards in the drawer.

 

[westie2]

COBAL
TIAC (Texas Instruments Automatic Computer) in octal
TIMAP (Texas Instruments Multiple Array Processor) in decimal
ASC (TI Advanced Scientific Computer) in hex
Can you tell I worked for TI!!!
Flexo Writer for flexo tape data input
Card Punch
FOCUS
Slide Rule calculations
10 key adding machine being able to multipy and divide with it.

 

[bobbins]

Well, my skill sets in appliances are considered somewhat obsolete, heck I am a Vintage Appliance Repairman.

When I was servicing appliances from 1981 to 1990 somethings were considered industry standards, such as:

- Freon Refrigerators (now the use of Ozone friendly products) – we were just being introduced to Freon reclaim methods back then.
- Belt driven Whirlpools – when I left the industry we were introduced to the direct drive
- Manual timers, very few electronic timers were used
- GE O/S washer timers (clam types)
- Microwaves had serviceable controls and contacts
- Maytag belt driven dishwasher – towards the 90’s the N/S pump was introduced
- Helical drive Maytag washer – when I left the industry we were introduced to the N/S orbital drive
- System 2000 Whirlpool fridges (wow electronic controls)
- Rotary compressors used on Coldspot fridges
- The famous Filter flo GE

So many more skill I had then that are now considered obsolete…good thing I change careers to mechanical engineering!

Bob

 

[kenmore58]

Yikes! Am I feeling old. Most of my obsolete skills come from my days as a business teacher, which I did before becoming a court reporter. Here's a few:

Gregg shorthand - I can still take dictation with it, not that I do!
Typing and correcting spirit duplicator masters and mimeograph stencils.
Margins for a leftbound manuscript with footnotes.
The correct touch for typing on a manual typewriter
Using a Mag Card Selectric.
How to multiply large numbers on a 10-key adding machine.
How to do division using a reciprocal table on a 10-key adding machine.
Using a dictaphone.

I'm going to crawl back into my cave now!

Ron

 

[ironrite]

IBM Executive typewriter D model...how many units for an "m" and how many for an "i"? It greatly upset my business machines teacher that I could run this monster! She didn't do so well at it. I had help from my older sister that had one at home for her typing business!

Marchant rotary calculator
Full keyboard comptometer, by touch!
of course 10 key and reverse 10 key for those wonderful 029 IBM keypunch machines
Varitype typesetting machine
Wang System 5 word processor
IBM Displaywriter
AND the Xerox 850 and 860 word processor, with that magic domino that held all your formating. And it had the touchpad, forerunner to the mouse. Miserable machine!!

Plus a lot of now old proof machines and check sorters related to banking!

 

[gyrafoam]

Steamboat Gauges indeed-----

Looks more like something Jules Vernes (what, no large brass valves and fittings?)-----must be a DC-9.

 

[pturo]

My Dad was here looking over my shoulder reading "obsolete tasks" and wanted me to add that he was once a machine gun operator on a blimp in WW2, but the Hindenburg disaster took that skill away from him and then he became a pharmacist in the War.

 

[whirlcool]

Gyrafoam

Nope, it's a Convair 580. The Convair twin became the airliner of choice from the early 50's to the early 60's. Just about every airline in the U.S. flew them at one time or another. It was one of the first pressurized cabin planes. When I started with North Central this was the "entry" level aircraft as they had phased out the DC-3 a few years before hand.
North Central Airlines picked up a bunch of them for cheap when the majors started to phase them out. In conjunction with Allison Air Research they added turboprop engines to them. Since the planes were really overbuilt they could easily handle the additional stress of the more powerful engines. The results were better than anyone expected.
The Convairs stayed with North Central, and then Republic all the way until Northwest bought them out. If you hang around an airport long enough, sooner of later you'll see a Convair hauling freight.

 

[petek]

I see lots of familiar things up above.
I took Fortran and Assembler programming which meant we also had to keypunch our own cards on the IBM 029. That's how I got my first real job way back when. I was hired on the spot, they didn't believe me at the employment counter for the company when I walked up with my long hair and was only 18 y.o.. Anyways I started that afternoon and got thrown in the data center so I became very familiar with all the IBM equipment, sorters, readers, MAI accounting machines, Flexowriters ( I always loved those and wished I had one now) Telex, another of my faves.. loved to chat with people in other offices around the country on the sligh. The other amazing thing is how the techs could take one piece of old equipment and morph it into something totally reusable, like old teletypes becoming printers etc. Those would be sent down to the operations area, the good new stuff always stayed upstairs. LOL

 

[washerboy]

Thanks to folks like Ron that taught us those "old" skills...it blows my mind at how many of the "younger" sect comes to me and ask me to type a report...they either cant type on a key board, hunt and peck or just too slow. I never learned short hand but my sister was a wiz at it. We laugh at all the effort went into learning the art and how marketable we thought she was when she finished school; she told me the other day she had'nt used short in forever. Funny story: My 18 year old son shares my love of flea markets..the other day we were "junkin" and he came across a rotary phone...he says "daddy is'nt this a phone"...yes...he looks confused.."I know what this does (the hand set) but how do you make a call?"...talk about feeling old..he was none too impressed when I should him how to sitck his finger in the hole of the approproiate number and turn the wheel.

 

[gadgetgary]

Years ago

When rotary phones were the only ones available, my uncle would very seriously tell the person on the other end of a wrong number....'Sorry, but you stuck your finger in the wrong hole'....noone here by that name(ROFLOL).

It was too funny when he said that to the caller with a completely straight face and totally meant it!

 

[bundtboy]

reed organ repair artist

I suppose knowing how to work on one of these won't do me much good, huh.

I was able to get this one to have a 'full, gusty tone' after only about 20 hours of cleaning and connective tissue replacement. Luckily it was rebuilt about 50 years ago which is why that was possible.

Anybody need their Reed organ tweeked?

Bob

 

[sudsmaster]

This morning on "The Bone" (FM 106.9), Lamont and Tenelli did more of their crank calls (they call it "Dirty Friday"). This one was to a podiatrist's office, and Lamont claimed that his wife had a serious problem that needed a podiatrist's attention: "Camel Toe". The receptionist was rather naive and didn't know the slang meaning of this term... She was very professional but couldn't figure out what the condition might be. She finally wound up advising the caller to have his wife see her primary physician and have a referral if necessary... it wasn't until Lamont called back later that she'd been clued in by others... her best friend had suggested the call in the first place... Their Tanzainian sidekick, Sully, said that in his country it's called "Goat Chin". LOL.

 

[gyrafoam]

a Convair----of course----

Complete with the bird-splitter center post----I should be more observant!

 

[74simon]

Replacing the foam strip on 8-tracks (except on RCA carts, of course!).

The ability to pick a chewed 8-track tape out of the machine without snapping it.

Adjusting points on a car with a mechanical distributor

Driving a 30 year old car with a top speed of 82 MPH at motorway speeds without it swerving over lanes or overheating

Fixing electrical gremlins on said vehicles (anyone who owns a British car with Lucas components will know what I mean)

Remembering to not wear shorts on a hot day while driving a car with vinyl seats!

Power wringing without snapping off buttons.

Changing a plug!

Operating the TV/VCR/stereo by actually having to get off one's seat to push buttons on the unit.

Backcombing and lacquering! As a teen I was on a bit of a Dusty Springfield trip, so perhaps it's for the best that I'm balding now...

Tie-dyeing

Using a camera film developing machine

Adding multiple figures without a calculator (although I do struggle with subtraction and division nowadays)